Without a Trace
by Sketch08
Summary: (AU) Poof. Anyone 20 and over vanish without a trace. Electronics no longer work and there is no escape. Fushimi, Yata, and a group of inexperienced fighters are forced to adapt. But what happens now that they too are changing? Developing red and blue powers and forming clans. Waging wars. And without any way to get out alive, the group soon realizes: It's a terrifying new world.


**A/N: I would like to start off by saying my story "The Apprentice" will be continued. In fact, what I **_**hope**_** I can accomplish is that I update for this story and "The Apprentice" on the same days. I finally got my motivation back, yay~! But then again, if you don't know what the hell I'm talking about: Hey there sir! I hope you like this story. **

**So yes, this is based on a real book series. I will be using the idea though maybe not the same plot or character use, ect. So if you HAVE read the real series, don't think "Oh I know exactly what is going to happen" because you don't. Not at all. Anyway, let's get started shall we?**

**Side Note: YES SOME OF THE AGES ARE LOWERED, BUT NOT DRAMATICALLY AND IT IS FOR A REASON. DON'T PAY MIND TO IT. This is an AU after all.**

* * *

In The Blink of an Eye:

It was incredible. No, not incredible, that totally wasn't the word…what was it then? Just one minute Yata Misaki had been sitting in the Pafekuto Music Center, listening as his instructor was about to go into the basics of learning to play the guitar.

Then suddenly he was gone. No big coming of the aliens to take him away, no "I'll be right back, please wait", just…poof: Gone in the blink of an eye.

"…You…you saw that, right?" Yata turned to look at his friend, Tatara Totsuka. He was 19 and 11 months, which meant he was 11 months older than the newly 19 Yata. Tatara had his brow furrowed as he watched the board, seemingly trying to make sense of what had happened.

"...Did he leave?" Another man named Bandou Saburota asked, pushing up his black sun glasses as if maybe he had missed the teacher walking out. Surely he had, that type of thing didn't just…._happen_...

"No, he…just..." Yata didn't say a word; he simply gestured to where the instructor had been standing and made a BOOM gesture with his hands like that explained it all. And it kind of did.

"Wait; hold up, where is Kusanagi? You know, Izumo Kusanagi?" A large man named Kamamoto Rikio spoke up now, standing in confusion and slight panic. "W-Was he even here?"

"Yeah, he was right here next to me!" Bandou now stood too, looking at the empty seat as if it might explode in a color burst of flames.

"Everyone please relax, I'm sure this is just some trick. The instructor and Kusanagi will be right back, we just gotta…um…wait." Yata stuttered and it was no moving speech, but indeed everyone sat and waited.

And promptly the wooden sliding doors flew open. Every head turned to it and stared, someone even patting Yata on the back because it had to be the instructor coming back from the bathroom with Kusanagi right behind him. Yata smiled.

But he was wrong. It wasn't either of the men.

It was Fushimi Saruhiko, a guy Yata knew…very well…they had been old middle school friends, but their relationship turned sour when Fushimi betrayed him and joined a rival clique. At the time, it was a major deal. Now, it was probably forgotten…but it was too late to fix their friendship. And if he thought about it too much, Yata got pretty depressed, so for now he pushed the thoughts out of his mind and just looked at the cobalt haired male who was glaring at everyone as if they knew something. He was a tall man, 19 years old, but could pass for 24 with that "I don't give a shit" attitude. Yata had always admired that in him. But he was a traitor, and could fuck himself for all Yata cared.

"Where the hell is your instructor? I need to talk with him. _Now_." Fushimi tried to hide the edge in his tone along with the panic, but it was hard…his entire group had disappeared along with his instructor. He was in the opposite room with a group of adults about to learn more on the art of playing the piano, something he secretly had always wanted to learn, but then they all had just…well…proofed. If that was a word…

A few people shrugged and murmurs could be heard.

"He just…vanished. Poofed. Clicked out." Yata tried to say all the words he could use to describe it. Fushimi merely glanced at him and nodded with a skeptical look.

"Man, tell me he's just out in that hallway you walked across. This ain't funny." Bandou pressed, almost eagerly.

"Because Fushimi is such the joker, right?" Kamamoto half smiled and this earned a few nervous laughs.

"No, he is not out there. If you losers aren't already panicking on the inside maybe you should. Not on the outside though, you'll give me a headache. But the reason you can is because, well…the piano group I was about to learn with and my instructor…they all just…vanished as well. Gone. "Clicked out"…" Fushimi said this in a hushed tone, like he didn't believe his own words.

"They did what?" Yata asked.

Fushimi looked at him with an expression Yata had not seen in many, many years: Fear. Solid, cold, quivering fear.

"They just...clicked out…" He repeated.

"No way…" Bandou frowned.

Yata moved over to the window and gasped at what he saw, what he heard…

"You think I'd lie, you idiot?!" Fushimi growled, fear making him want to fight to forget it.

"Who ya callin' an idiot, ya cobalt haired freak?!" Bandou hissed back, grabbing the man by his shoulders.

"That's impossible…"

Everyone in the room turned to the voice that said this. Everyone's eyes locked on Yata and then what Yata was seeing…what he was hearing…what they now could feel too.

They were on the forth floor of the music center, but down below on the street chaos was wide spread. Car alarms blared and smoke rose from vehicles that were smashed into one another. Streets were empty and there was no blood or bodies in the many accidents he was seeing.

Everyone just stared.

"Move." Fushimi shoved past Bandou to go back out into the hall and Yata followed him. They both walked over to Fushimi's music room and sure enough, nothing. A few other people were milling around in the hallways, looking at the two who walked by. Others were making phone calls and then cursing because the phones were not working, saying "Sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service at this time. Please try again later." It sounded creepy now.

"Wait, there are kids beneath us." Yata realized this then dashed down the stairs to see a few 4th graders poking their heads out from the rooms, seeming like they were looking for something. One ran to him and tugged at his pant leg.

"Do you know where our teacher is?" He asked slowly as if Yata didn't know what language he was speaking.

"N-No…go on back to your class room, he'll come back, I'm sure. Just be patient, alright?" Yata patted the kid's head and the kid nodded once before reluctantly roaming back into the room and shutting the doors. Giggles could be heard from inside.

Fushimi walked up next to Yata and looked at some other kids who were gazing fearfully at them, like they were about to be scolded.

"Go back to your room. Stay there until further notice." Fushimi ordered and they did, willingly.

"We need to go back upstairs." Yata urged. But quickly he realized the others had followed them and they seemed to be waiting for them across the hall.

"What?" Fushimi frowned.

"Nothing." Tatara half smiled and looked to the side.

"Man, this isn't right…" Kamamoto shook his head and took his hood down. He was a round man with sun glasses and a white hoodie with pants to match. He wore a big fat gold chain around his neck and it "ding"ed every now and then, much to Fushimi's apparent annoyance.

Yata kept a more normal look, a white shirt with green shorts and purple sneakers. He had a ripped red jacket tied around his waist and he had a black beanie on his head. He was short for his age, and could easily be mistaken for a middle schooler. Most people only knew him for his immature and short fused temper. He wasn't someone to be remembered…but they did know him, at least.

Fushimi was only known for saving a little girls life after she almost get smashed between two cars. However, Fushimi had turned just in time to pull her away. She suffered minor injures and even now he found himself worrying a bit about her. She was here too, on this floor in one of these rooms. She took singing lessons.

Right then she ran out of a nearby room and wrapped her arms around Fushimi's leg. He hadn't seen her in a while, but in this type of situation he understood the 11-year-olds fear and picked her up. Once again, he felt the horrible sensation something terrible was going to happen.

"Oh my fucking god!" Bandou cried out which caused everyone to look at him. People from the upper floors now came to join the rest on the 3rd floor and it was getting pretty crowded.

"What is it?!" A man named Akiyama pushed forward, his black swayed hair bouncing a bit.

"My cell phone isn't working! And I tried calling my friend, it didn't even ring!" He panicked.

"Mine isn't either, and my mom would be home! She always is, but it's not ringing at all!" A 14 year old seemed mad as he spoke up, the adults looking to him for once.

"It says I have two bars but I ain't getting shit…" Kamamoto grunted.

Fushimi pulled out his phone.

"Call 911!" Someone called to him.

"No, I was calling Ghostbusters- Who the FUCK did you think I was calling, dumbass?!" Fushimi snarled as he punched in the numbers then waited.

A silence.

"Well?" Yata asked.

Fushimi seemed perplexed.

"N-Nothing. It ringed this time, but…nothing…silence, blankness. Nothing." Fushimi blinked and calmly put his phone back. This was not possible.

"Nothing?!" Akiyama checked his own speed dials. Nothing.

The hallway was filling now with kids and other teens. Some were crying and it made the groups skin crawl.

"Everyone, let's just remain calm" A new voice spoke. Munakata Reisi, 19 and 10 months. He looked a lot like Fushimi, could have been his brother. But he was much more collected. His voice calmed a few kids and adults but not the growing waves of panic.

"There is a TV in the lobby." Tatara snapped his fingers.

Fushimi, Yata, Tatara, Anna, and Bandou raced down the stairs and then wondered why they didn't take the elevator as the panted and heaved themselves over to the tv set, turning it on. They could hear others coming down too, some did and some did not move at all from their positions on the third floor. People were already in the lobby, but they were trying the phone thing. _A shame_, Fushimi thought.

"Wait, no one step behind the counter line, we're not supposed to!" Yata said, childishly.

"Wait, no one disappear out of thin air, we're not supposed to!" Bandou did a sarcastic parody of Yata's sentence and lightly smacked him upside the head. "C'mon man."

"Okay, it's on." Fushimi said. He started to flip through all the channels it had.

Nothing. Absolutely, positively NOTHING.

"God DAMMIT." Fushimi growled and threw the remote. No tv, no phones, no certain people, no nothing, all at this time? What the hell, it made no sense….

"Got anything?" Kamamoto looked to Tatara and Fushimi. They were the only two who were smart enough to possibly know what was up.

"….I don't know." Fushimi spit the words.

"We rule this place now!" A little kid shouted as he jumped around with other kids.

"Yeah, we're gonna break open the vending machines!" One yelled, followed by cheers.

"I wouldn't do that…" Yata frowned.

"TOO LATE!" One yelled and they ran off.

"Brats." Fushimi mused.

"So…it'd be totally messed up if I asked them to bring me some trail mix, right? Right?" Kamamoto asked.

"Ugh.." Fushimi rolled his eyes.

"20." Fushimi spoke up again after a long silence.

"Channel 20 didn't work either" Akiyama said.

"No you loser, I meant 20 years old. Most guys in my class were 20 or 23 and our instructor was diffidently older. 20 years old. I was the only 19 year old…." Fushimi seemed proud let cursed at his new discovery.

"Kusanagi was 26…the other dude in our class who no one mentioned was 24, he's gone too…" Bandou's eyes widened.

"No way, no, that makes no sense. Anyone in the music center 20 and over?" Yata shook his head.

"It's not just the music center. You saw outside." Fushimi whispered.

"…No…no, no, no, no, shut up! That's…no…" Yata smiled nervously, scared.

"My mother…" Tatara gasped and covered his mouth.

"This isn't funny!" Yata yelled into the air, as if someone had arranged a mass prank.

Fushimi sat there, calm on the outside but scared on the inside. He had no family he had to worry about. But seeing Yata so upset drove him mad…he cared about the red haired boy, yes, but…Yata paid no mind to him…and now the boy was beginning to sob shamefully and all Fushimi wanted to do was hold him and never let go.

"We need to go check it out." Bandou said, trying to sound brave as his voice cracked and betrayed him.

Yata was already grabbing his board from it's spot on the wall. He went to ride it and Kamamoto stopped him by grabbing the back of his shirt.

"Let go, man! I need to go to my mom's home…I gotta see for myself…" Yata sniffled. Fushimi stepped up as his cold heart broke.

"We all need to. Well, maybe not all…" Bandou glared at Fushimi who huffed.

"But when we do, we'll do it together, okay?" Kamamoto said, Anna next to him nodding.

Yata said nothing and tried to leave again. Fushimi walked up.

"Misaki…together. Alright? We'll be safer that way and it'll be much faster. Easier, you understand? Can you do that?" Fushimi frowned at his attempted comforting, but it worked well enough. But when he said "safer"…what did they need to be "safe" from?

"Saru…" Yata glowered at him for a moment but then relaxed.

Fushimi nodded once and then Yata smiled a little. Maybe just this once he had his friend back.

"O-Okay Saru. We'll all go. You, me…" He looked to who else wanted to join.

"Me." Bandou said.

"Me." Anna said softly.

"Me." Tatara sighed.

"I'll…stay." Kamamoto said. "See if I can't round the kids up." He added.

"Good idea." Fushimi said.

"So Fushimi, Bandou, Tatara, Anna, and myself, correct? Great. Let's go…" Yata said.

Akiyama helped Kamamoto with the kids. They needed someone, and the 19 year olds were all they really had.

"Fushimi…when you said "safer", just what are we being safe from?" Anna asked the older male.

"….I'm not sure. Aren't you always safe in groups?" He shrugged as he walked beside a slowly skateboarding Yata and noticed he was staring.

"Yes, but usually if you're going to be "safe" there must be something you're trying to be safe _from_…what are we scared of?" Bandou flinched.

"…Once again: I don't know." Fushimi sighed.

_And_, he thought, _I don't want to find out_.

* * *

**A/N: So suspenseful =w= Anyway, I hope you all are enjoying so far. PLEASE REVIEW. It means a lot, makes me happy and fixes mistakes! **** Everyone loves constructive criticism. Thanks sirs for reading, hope you come back for next chapter~!**


End file.
